Blue Bug From Outer Space - Part Twelve by: Enemyoffun Jaime Reyes is kid out of his element, who dreams of a life better than his own. He finds such a life when he stumbles about a strange blue stone in the garbage and his whole world changes.

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Author's Note: I'm a writing machine lately. Here's Chapter Twelve, the conclusion of another cliffhanger and the answer to some questions raised. THis chapter is much more exciting and action packed than the last. The next will be more quiet and subdued then the story will turn into the home stretch for the end. I'd like to thank djkauf for the perfect editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters.

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Chapter Twelve:

“What in the hell?”

The figure stepped into the room, my mouth dropped open. There was no doubt about it now; it was the Green Arrow. She stepped over the fallen goons and walked to the foot of the stairs, nocking an arrow as she did so. All I could do was stare. She was everything the papers said and more. She had this presence about her. She stood there at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at me with this air of superiority. I wanted to jump down the steps and ask her for her autograph. Instead, I stood transfixed. She looked down at one of the guys, moaning and twitching on the ground.

She grabbed the fletch of her arrow and twisted it. The man screamed out in pain. She bent down so her face was inches from his. “Your boss” she said, her voice cold and without emotion. “Where the hell is she?”

The guy said nothing. The Green Arrow twisted the arrow some more and the guy screamed louder in pain.

“We can’t linger here,” said Khaji, worry in her voice. “The helicopter is getting closer.”

I took a deep breath. Did I want to interrupt this interrogation? The Green Arrow was a pretty serious chick. Very bad ass, I’m not sure if I wanted to get in the way of that. But at the same time, she was as much at risk as I was. So I took another deep breath and cleared my throat. She turned and seemed to notice me for the first time. Most of her face was hidden under her large green hood but I could see she was wearing a black mask over her eyes and that she was blonde. There was a strand of her hair dangling down.

“We can’t stay here,” I said softly. “There’s a helicopter on the way.”

Her eyes narrowed but she nodded. She let go of the arrow and slammed the guy’s head into the step, knocking him unconscious. “We weren’t going to get anything out of him anyway.”

I smiled weakly at her. I was about to ask her the question that had been plaguing me for the last for seconds but didn’t get a chance because Probe peeked her head out of my bedroom. She looked first at me and then got a good look at the Green Arrow. She stared at her for some time and didn’t say anything. Instead, she slipped out of my room and handed me my gym bag. I hefted it onto my shoulder and felt Probe’s fingers entangle with my own. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze and then I remembered. Posse was afraid of the Green Arrow. She was cracking down on them, trying to roust them out of hiding. Then she disappeared and they partied. Now that she was back…

There was a commotion downstairs, drawing my attention back to the moment. Apparently, there were more goons. One of them came running around the corner, trying to make his way up the stairs. Green Arrow dropped him with a well-placed arrow. He never saw it coming. He gurgled a bit on the floor and then fell silent. The shot didn’t kill him but it was enough to knock him out cold. I scanned his body with my blue vision. The arrow was sticking in his collarbone. It was enough to take him down but not enough to kill him. I think I read that in the paper. The Green Arrow never shot to kill. She could do a lot of damage but a killer she didn’t.

“He’s just a straggler,” she said, nocking another arrow. “But we can’t be too careful.” She walked down the stairs, stopped at the bottom and looked up at us. “You guys coming or not. These guys always have back up, more will come.”

Still holding Probe’s hand, the two of us stepped around the bastards on the stairs. Once at the bottom, Green Arrow went out the front door first. She covered it for a few seconds then waved us on. There were two black SUV’s on my front lawn; both had their doors wide open. Lying in front of one were four downed goons, all of them with arrows sticking out of awkward places. None of them were dead but they definitely would be in a lot of pain when they woke up. We wove through the two vehicles to the street. What I saw there was both gorgeous and beautiful. It was also very, very familiar. I paused when I stared at the green Viper, staring fish mouthed at it. There was no way it could be the same car; it wasn’t possible. But then again, how many green Vipers were there. The Green Arrow noticed me looking as she opened the driver’s side door. As she beckoned us forward, we heard two alarming noises. The first was the distant thump of helicopters blades and the other was the annoying wail of police sirens. The question was which one was going to get to us first.

I dragged Probe toward the car, not wishing to find out.

“I don’t have a backseat so you’re going to have to share,” she said as she slipped into her seat and closed the door.

I climbed into the passenger seat and Probe got on my lap. The seatbelt barely went around the two of us but we managed. I closed the door, she revived the engine and the super sleek sports car took off. It was like a dream come true. I would have enjoyed it ten times more if not for the situation. I was racing away from my house, which was overrun by guys trying to kill me and they had my parents. There was nothing exciting about that at all. Not even meeting one of my idols was as cool as I thought it was going to be. All be it we are in kind of situation where hero worship can wait for later. But what couldn’t wait were my questions and I had a lot of them.

“How in the hell did you know those guys were going to be there tonight?” I asked as we whipped around the corner going about sixty five.

“I didn’t,” she said as we sped through a red light. Luckily, there was no traffic. “Call it a hunch.”

I shook my head. “You’re going to have to give me more than that.”

She sighed and nodded. She took a hand off the wheel and used it to pull off her hood. It dropped around her shoulders and I was right, she was blonde. But there was more to it than that. She was a familiar blonde, a very familiar blonde. It was the long braided ponytail that gave her away, it was the Queen Twist after all. My eyes bulged out of my head. My idol and my former crush were one in the same. How nuts was that? But it didn’t make any sense. Why in the world would Olivia Queen be running around moonlighting as the Green Arrow?

“Save your questions for later,” she said, cutting me off. “I figure you and I have something in common, or am I wrong, Jaime?”

“How did you know…?”

She smiled. “Jaime Reyes disappears and his cousin Josie, who looks a little like him, just happens to show up at the same time. Not only that, your father asked me to use my private room at the Spritz. He kind of fouled up and said it was for him and his daughter. I thought it was kind of cute that he’d take your sister to a fancy place until I saw you on the security cameras.”

“You spy on the restaurant?”

She laughed. “I own the restaurant. I monitor the feeds in all my places now. I can’t take any more chances.”

I nodded. She was talking about her grandfather of course. It all made perfect sense now. There was an internet rumor that old man Queen didn’t die from a heart attack. Some conspiracy theorists thought he was killed by a gifted archer named Merlyn. The night of Mr. Queen’s death, there was an apparent suicide nearby. An unidentified man jumped from the roof of Queen Towers. A lot of the geeks out there were convinced it was Merlyn and that Green Arrow did him in. Someone had pictures of a couple of black arrows that were supposed found around the guy’s body. The pics didn’t stay up for very long but they fueled a lot of rumors. I thought it was a load of crap because I knew Mr. Queen; I went to his funeral in fact. Now that I knew Olivia was the Green Arrow, it was very possible indeed.

“The first chance we get we have to leave her.” Khaji sounded agitated by something. “She bears their ring on her finger.”

“What are you talking about?”

I looked at Olivia’s hand. Sure enough, there was a ring on her finger; it was green with a little hourglass or something on it. It was kind of cool looking actually.

“That is the mark of the Lantern,” said Khaji with venom in her voice. “They are not to be trusted.”

I rolled my eyes and ignored her. We drove on in relative silence. Thankfully, the goons didn’t give chase so we were in the clear for now. Olivia stopped speeding when we got into the city proper. It was strange but I was certain her green car would stand out but as soon as we pulled into traffic, it kind of blended in. Of course, there were no other green cars on the road but it didn’t look out of place. What bothered me though was the fact that people could see us. Olivia had her hood down so people would definitely recognize her. Then I noticed the windows, they were slightly tinted. Were they always that way? I’ve waxed this car about a hundred times and never noticed the windows before.

“What” snapped Olivia, out of the blue? “You can’t be serious?”

I looked around. Who the hell was she talking too? Then I noticed it, there was something in her ear. Did she have a partner?

“Ok, I’ll ask her” She cleared her throat. “Josie, has any one given you anything new lately?”

I was about to shake my head no but then I remembered. I looked down at the gold bracelet on my wrist. It was a gift from Amparo; she gave one to Brenda too.

I held up my wrist. “My friend’s aunt gave us these bracelets today. Why?”

Olivia pushed the power window button, the window next to me rolled down. “Take it off and toss it out the window.”

I snapped my hand over my wrist. Brenda would be so pissed if I did something like that. “Not on your life.”

Olivia groaned. Whatever she was about to say was lost as someone whipped in front of us. Olivia swerved to avoid them, nearly spinning out. Probe shifted on my lap, digging her elbows into my side. She mouthed sorry as the power window rolled back up. I looked ahead. There was a black SUV driving erratically in front of us. At first, I thought it was some nut until I looked into the rear view mirror. There were two more black SUV’s speeding toward us from behind. Son of a bitch. How were these people still finding us? I looked at my wrist and shook my head. There’s no way.

“Your friend is right,” said Khaji with a sigh. “I should have detected it sooner but my scanners were offline at the time. But the signal is very clear now. There’s a tracking device in that new bauble of yours.”

I groaned. That meant…no that wasn’t possible. “Should I toss it?”

“Not here” said Khaji “throwing it out now will tip them off that we know it’s there. They might do something to harm your family. We can dump it as soon as we shake them.”

There was a jarring thump from behind. Our car veered forward but Olivia kept it under control. They were trying to pin us in and force us off the road. I took a deep breath; I had to do something. I looked at the buttons for the various car functions, trying to see if there was anything new. This was the Green Arrow’s car after all; maybe she tricked it out. But there was nothing that looked out of the ordinary, which meant it was all up to me.

“How’s the armor?”

“Seventy five percent” said Khaji and then she groaned. “You’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“You’re the one in my head, you tell me?”

“Even if you use it, its not going to be for long. You should really wait until we’re at maximum.”

“I don’t need long. Just enough time to shake these bastards.”

She groaned. I closed my eyes and felt the telltale tingle of the armor activating. Probe noticed it to and kind of jumped up a little which was quite a feat seeing how much room the two of us had. “What are you doing?” she gasped as the blue and black slowly crept up my arms and legs.

“Pull into that side street and let me out” I said, pointing to the left.

Olivia veered the car that way, cutting off a Sedan that tried to pass recklessly past our high-speed chase. She completely threw off our pursuers and they went flying by. But I knew that wouldn’t be the case for long. They’d do something reckless too and come back for us. I took a deep breath; I had to stop this now.

Olivia stopped the car and looked at me. “Are you sure about this?”

I nodded as the armor finished forming around my body. “I’ll draw them away and dump my bracelet. Where do you want to meet up?”

She smiled. “At Queen Tower.”

I nodded as I opened the door. Probe crawled off my lap, glad to be off it I think. I gave her a gentle hug then walked a few feet into the street. There were a couple of onlookers, staring in amazement. I saluted my friends as Probe got back into the car and shut the door. I waited until Olivia revved the engine and peeled away. Then I activated my wings and took to the air.

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I flew high enough to see the whole street and beyond. The city was pretty cool from this high up, I could see as far as the bay even. The bridge was never looked better. I smiled, one of these days I’d definitely have to take a drive over it. I turned away because I had more important things to attend too. I scanned the road, looking for the green “Arrow Car”, nice huh; I just made that up myself. I found the car easily enough. Olivia was speeding again, all three SUVS in hot pursuit. They weren’t alone anymore though. There were a couple of police cruisers following the action now, their sirens so loud I could hear them from my height.

I sighed; this was getting more dangerous by the minute. I have to stop it. I zipped back down toward the city. I had a goal in mind. It was somewhat reckless but then again everything this day was a little reckless. I just needed to buy Olivia enough time to get away. They were after me and Probe after all. Now I suppose she was a target too. I was still geeking out over that. The Green Arrow was Olivia Queen and she was so freaking badass. When I saw her standing there, I could have jumped for joy. I’m glad I kind of kept my cool, freaking out would not have been good for that situation. Even now, I was doing everything I could to keep my excitement down.

“What are you planning to do?”

I smirked. “I’m going to stop a high speed chase of course.”

I zeroed in on the lead SUV. It was practically on the Viper’s bumper now. I zipped toward, moving faster than I thought possible. I felt like a fighter jet. I pulled up alongside it and tapped on the window. The shocked driver turned and looked at me. I tapped again but he gunned the engine. I rolled my eyes and matched his speed. If he doesn’t want to play by the rules. I took a deep breath and slammed my fist into the glass, shattering it. The driver screamed and swerved. He nicked the bumper of the Viper and swerved but he regained control quickly.

“PULL OVER NOW!”

“Screw you, bitch!”

He pulled a gun and squeezed off a shot, luckily he missed. With my armor still not fully charged, I’m not sure if the bullet would have bounced off. What’s with the B word? Angrily I reached through the window and took a hold of the wheel. I gave it a quick yank. I meant to turn the car, causing it to swerve into the divider. But I yanked too hard and pulled the whole steering wheel off. The driver screamed, dropping his gun. I zipped away from the vehicle; I didn’t want to get caught in the mess he was about to create. Though the car could still stop and accelerate, it had no steering control. I watched in awe as it skidded out and flipped over three of four times. It was the most amazing and horrifying thing I’ve ever seen. One of the pursuing SUV’s couldn’t stop in time and slammed into the wreckage. The other squealed its brakes and did a last minute maneuver, narrowly avoiding the crack up. The other cars on the street were far enough away to do the same but it was pretty close. The police cruisers had to stop too, the two smashed SUV’s took up both lanes, cutting off the flow of traffic. It wasn’t what I’d planned but it worked better than I thought.

“That could have been a disaster.”

I ignored her. Instead, I looked for the Viper and the one pursuing SUV. They weren’t too far ahead of me now. I took a deep breath and continued my own pursuit. I went up in the air again though, hoping for a better view. I went to the top of some of the taller buildings and looked down. Up ahead there was going to be a problem. There was a traffic jam, cars beeping and honking all arranged in a line. I looked down at the Viper; they were approaching it pretty fast. If they didn’t stop there was going to be a mess. I took a deep breath and zipped down toward the street again. I zoomed past the SUV, causing the driver to swerve a bit and pulled up alongside the Viper. I tapped the window. It rolled down a second or two later.

“Kinda busy here” snapped Olivia, clearly frustrated.

“I thought you might want to know about the traffic jam up ahead.”

She sighed and cursed. “It’s just the one now, right?”

I nodded. “You just worry about what’s ahead; I’ll take care of what’s behind.”

She smiled and rolled the window back up. Here goes nothing. I moved back a little from the Viper and spun in midair, hovering about two feet off the road now. The SUV was barreling toward me and it definitely wasn’t going to stop. I took another deep breath---hey, they’re kind of relaxing---then zipped up into the air. I went up about twenty feet and waited. It didn’t take long. I dropped back down as fast as I could as soon as the SUV got within range. I slammed down fist first into the trunk, mashing things to bits. The impact was so strong, that the front seat passenger went through the windshield. I caught him before he smashed face first into the pavement though. The driver was in pretty bad shape though. His head hit the windshield and there was a lot of blood.

I rolled the passenger onto the road and pulled myself up and out of the mangled wreck. It wasn’t too difficult but there was a lot of car around me. Slamming into a car from twenty feet in the air, not the greatest idea in the world. But I stopped it and that all that mattered.

I walked around to the back of the vehicle and opened the door; there were three guys back here. They were all unconscious. One of them had a laptop, with a cracked display screen. It was still on though. There was a green schematic of the street and a blinking green light. It took me a few seconds to realize that the light was me. This was the guy who’d been tracking me. I raised my hand and caused the armor to peel away, revealing my bare arm. I slowly pulled the bracelet away and scanned it. I could see the little tracking device inside. I groaned.

So it was true, Amparo was somehow involved in all of this. She might even be La Dama herself. I crushed the bracelet in my hand and dropped the shattered fragments onto the guy’s lap. On the screen, the blinking dot disappeared.

“Khaji, can you tap into that radio Olivia’s using?”

“Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” A few seconds later, she came back. “There, all tapped in.”

I nodded. “Olivia, can you hear me?”

“Who the hell is this?” asked a startled female voice. “How did you find this frequency?”

I groaned. It must have been her partner. “I’m the Blue Beetle; I need to talk to the Green Arrow.”

“Ummm” said the girl.

Olivia snapped on a few seconds later: “Josie, tell me some good news?”

“You’re in the clear now. The last SUV is scrap metal.”

I heard her sigh. “Good to hear. We’re making our way to the Tower, I’ll tell the doorman to expect you.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I clicked off and heard the sirens. I turned and looked. There was a whole string of flashing red heading this way. I guess that’s my cue. I took another deep breath and flew up into the air. I got about ten feet up when I heard it. At first, it was faint, the sirens drowning it out. But it got clearer the higher I flew. Then it was crystal clear: it was the thumping of helicopter blades. I snapped around and saw it coming. I swerved just in time as a hail of tracer rounds zipped past me. I cursed. Even with the armor, those things probably would have torn the hell out of me.

The helicopter came in strong and fast. It was black and sleek, a mini-gun under its nose. Luckily, there were no missiles, I’m not sure if I could dodge those. It surprised me that it was so sleek and modern looking. It must have cost a damn fortune. La Dama must have had a lot of money and a lot of connections. This thing looked brand new and deadly.

“We’re almost to the half way point of our reserves,” said Khaji, sighing.

“I thought you were an all powerful alien invader, shouldn’t you have unlimited power or something?”

She sighed. “I did but that was centuries ago. Being under the ground for all those years kind of tapped all that out. I don’t suppose you know where we can get some vibranium do you?”

“Never heard of it.”

The helicopter fired again. I narrowly missed being hit. It was sweeping the air with its bullets, trying to take me down the easy way. I was doing my best to dodge but I was starting to feel the wear. The armor was starting to feel heavy and the wings kind of sluggish. Khaji was right; we were running out of juice. I needed to end this now but I couldn’t do it here. I looked down and saw the city below. If I took out the helicopter up here then it would definitely go crashing down there. A lot of innocent people would get hurt if it fell on them. I looked past it and saw the Bay. It was a long shot but maybe I could coax it out into the ocean.

"I’m going to try something nuts, ok?”

I didn’t wait for Khaji to respond. Instead, I turned and went right at the helicopter. I fired off a couple of energy balls to distract it. The gunner concentrated on them and I zipped on by. It took the helicopter a couple of seconds to maneuver but it was plenty of time for me. I dropped well below it, heading for the buildings. If I could stay low enough then it wouldn’t be able to pursue me directly. I got way ahead of it, putting as much power as I could into my speed. I zipped across the night skyline, trying my best to avoid the buildings as they came up at me. I wove and dodged and heard the helicopter in fast pursuit. It took the bait though, and that’s all that really mattered.

I came up on Queen Tower. From this height, it was like a giant gleaming silver spire. There was a giant Q on the side of the building, who said old man Queen was modest. I zipped on by, getting so close that the windows rattled. I looked down for a split second and thought I saw the green Viper zip into the garage. Good for them. I needed to concentrate on the path ahead. The Tower was the last of the skyscrapers, the rest of the buildings were small in comparison. I wove around them easily enough and made it straight out over the Bay. I used the bridge as my focal point and went for it, giving it all I had. The thumping of the helicopter returned. A burst of fire zipped in front of me; it narrowly missed again. I zigged and zagged, trying to confuse the bastard firing at me. Then I rolled over in the air, pointing both my hands up toward the guns. I fired off two balls at once; hoping one of them would find their target.

They both did. The first slammed into the mini-gun, tearing it too shreds. The second slammed into the underbelly of the nose. The helicopter jerked upwards and away. I smirked and went right at it. I needed to get it away from everything, including the bridge. I didn’t want to be the hero notorious for ruining a national landmark. So I zipped in front of the cockpit, waving at the two ass-holes inside as I went by. They were momentarily stunned by the maneuver but they recovered quickly. I went out and away, taking them toward the ocean just like I wanted. The helicopter was in hot pursuit, really putting on the power.

When I got far enough out, I dropped low. I went down so far that I was practically skimming across the top of the water. The helicopter followed, just like I wanted it too. I snapped up at the last second and banked toward it. I pulled up alongside it, smashing the side window with one of my elbows. The pilot turned to me, shocked.

“GET OUT!” I shouted, yanking the door open.

He didn’t second guess it; neither did the man next to him. Both of them nodded and jumped out of the vehicle. The helicopter was low enough that they hit the water only a few feet from it, they’d survive. The helicopter, not so much. I grabbed a hold of it, stalling its fall so it didn’t slam into its passengers. Then I let go and watched as it careened toward the dark blue water, slamming nose first into it. There was no explosion. But there was a giant splash. Water and mangled metal flew into the air; I dodged it all as I zipped up and over.

“Are you insane?”

I laughed and coughed. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“You could have gotten yourself killed.”

I nodded. She was right. It was insane but it got the job done. I turned and flew back down toward the water. The pilot and co-pilot were treading water, neither too badly hurt. I dropped down and grabbed both of them by their collars, lifting them out of the water. They were a little heavy but I didn’t have that far to fly. I went right to the bridge, dropping low enough to let them go. They landed in the middle of the road and rolled to a stop. Several cars screeched to avoid them but there were no accidents. A few people got out of their vehicles to watch as I flew off. I think there might have been a camera flash or two. I didn’t stop for a photo op though.

I aimed right for Queen Tower. I thought about going for the roof but the armor was losing pep fast and there was no way I could fly that high now. I went for the back entrance instead, near where my father’s garage was. I landed with a thump and a roll, exhausted as I tumbled across the ground. When I finally came to a stop, the armor was gone. I sat up, moaning, feeling the bruises. I laughed and rubbed my neck, shivering as the cold night air touched my naked body.

“You’re too reckless, you know that.”

“Do we have enough juice to manifest clothes?”

“Afraid not” said Khaji, the exhaustion evident in her voice.

It was then that I noticed I wasn’t alone. Mr. Creepy Guy was standing there, staring at me. I quickly covered my naked parts with my hands. He smiled sheepishly, blushed and looked away. I rolled my eyes.

“Spare your coat for a damsel in distress?”

He fumbled and took off his coat, handing it to me.

I slipped it on, sighing. “I don’t suppose you can call upstairs and tell Miss Queen that Josie’s arrived, can you?”